Antonio Scurati

Antonio Scurati (born 25 June 1969) is an Italian writer and academic. A professor of comparative literature and creative writing at the IULM University of Milan, mass media scholar and editorialist for the Corriere della Sera, Scurati has won the main Italian literary prizes. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Strega Prize for his novel M: Son of the Century, the first volume in a series of five books dedicated to Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism. It was at the top of the charts for two consecutive years, was translated into over forty languages, and has been adapted into a television series.

Early life and education Scurati was born in Naples to a Neapolitan mother and a father from Cusano Milanino. He graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Milan. where he became an associate professor and conductor of a creative writing seminar and a seminar in orality and rhetoric,

Career From early writings to collaboration with the Corriere della Sera In 2003, Scurati published the essay Guerra. Narrazioni e culture nella tradizione occidentale, which was a finalist for the Viareggio Prize.

In 2009, Scurati published Il bambino che sognava la fine del mondo, a novel that mixes reality and fiction and is fierce criticism of mass media and the information economy as a whole. where he criticized Scurati for having "retouched the history" with his novel. and Scurati commented: "I dedicate the victory to our grandfathers and fathers, who were first seduced and then oppressed by fascism, especially those among them who found the courage to fight it with weapons in hand. I would also like to dedicate the award to our children, with the hope that they will not have to go back to experiencing what we experienced a hundred years ago, especially to my daughter Lucia." when it was being translated into more than 40 languages. The English translation by Anne Milano Appel was published by Harper on 5 April 2022. Also in 2022 it was announced that a production for a television series adaptation was under way, produced by Sky Original and directed by Joe Wright, with Luca Marinelli as Mussolini, and scheduled for release in 2024.

In September 2020, M. L'uomo della provvidenza, the second volume of the quartet was published. recounting his liberticidal politics and the fierce power struggles and ideological battles of the National Fascist Party. and was awarded the 2022 European Book Prize. In September 2022, the third volume of the series was released, M. Gli ultimi giorni dell'Europa, which follows the fateful years from 1938 to 1940 that would lead to Italy's entry into World War II. by 2022 was expanded as a tetralogy. In October 2022, Scurati commented: "At this point it is clear that I will need a fourth and perhaps a fifth to complete the story." In October 2023, about the TV series adaptation, Scurati commented: "It will have black comedy tones. But Mussolini is not a hero." About the making of the script, he said: "The book was successful, many politicians keep it on their bedside table. But in the writing of the screenplay there were moments of disagreement, even conflict." In April 2025, the fifth and final volume of the series was released, M. La fine e il principio.

After the results of the 2022 Italian general election showed that Brothers of Italy (FdI), a political party with roots dating back to the Italian Social Movement that was founded by neo-fascists and Mussolini's followers after World War II, was the most voted and largest party in the Italian Parliament, Scurati described FdI leader and future Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni as an "heir of Mussolini". For the 25 April celebrations (Liberation Day) of the Italian resistance movement to Nazi–fascism in 2024, Scurati was scheduled to deliver a monologue for the Italian public television RAI, warning that "the specter of fascism haunts the house of Italian democracy". Scurati is an honorary citizen of Ravello, where he spent every summer since he was a child; As told in a 2021 interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport, it was thanks to his father that Scurati became a supporter of Juventus, with the likes of Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane, whose transfer in 2001 made him lose his support for the club. In the same 2021 interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport, about former Napoli SSC footballer Diego Maradona, who died in 2020, he said: "Plus ultra on the pitch. Diego brought great joy, a man who became a myth like Hercules or Achilles. Superhuman and subhuman. However, a city that feeds on myths is destined for the worst. After all, the mythological message leaves man enchanted to destroy him. It makes me angry to see Naples like this, with all its contradictions. But it is love's anger."

Works Novels

Essays

Documentary